The farmers of Ontario seldom need to be urged to plant fruit trees,
they are awake to their value both for home consumption, in the
restricted sense of the producer’s household, and for market. They would
not like to be without their apples especially, they are so very
convenient and agreeable, can be used in so many ways, and contribute so
largely to the comfort of the whole household. But the same can not be
said of the small fruits. They have not yet been allowed to command the
share of attention which their value deserves. The reason of this may in
a large measure be found in the fact that they require attention after
they have been planted, else they will yield no fruit. The apple tree,
once established, is able largely to take care of itself, and in spite
of entire neglect will yield considerable fruit. Not so with our small
fruits. They require cultivation, to be kept free from weeds, regularly
supplied with food, and to be properly trimmed. To do this was irksome,
especially to one who did not know how to do it properly. Besides, it
was small business in comparison with the more important crops of the
farm, and the farmer felt that weightier interests demanded all his time
and thought. There is some change in this respect for the better, but
not all that there might be, not all that a true appreciation of our
small fruits will yet produce. Those farmers who live near to the larger
villages and towns have many of them discovered than an acre or so of
small fruits is a very profitable acre, and well repays all the outlay
for planting, tilling, and fertilizing. In a pecuniary point of view it
pays. But we wish to call the attention of our readers to the fact that
a supply of small fruits sufficient for the daily use of the farmer’s
family during their season pays large, pays better than the village or
city market, pays in many ways, pays far beyond any money value. Will it
be necessary just here to stop and demonstrate that the acquisition of
money is not the most important object in life? True, many live as
though it was. To very many it doubtless is. There are men who will
sacrifice health, and peace, and even life itself in the acquisition of
money. But does it pay?
There is something of value in being able to supply one’s table with an
agreeable variety. It is not conducive to our happiness or our health to
be confined to a very limited number of articles of food. And He who
best knows the wants of the physical man has furnished us with not only
the staff of life, but with many other articles of food as adjuncts to
that, which play no unimportant part in the perfect development and
healthful continuance of our bodies. The wise man will seek to avail
himself of these, and will find in our summer fruits a convenient and
designed supply. As the summer heat begins, how grateful is the
strawberry, with its mingled sweet and sour, counteracting the bilious
tendencies of the season, and refreshing while it gratifies. Scarcely
will it have passed away before the raspberry comes to continue the acid
tonic with a change of flavors, thus enticing us in the use of a diet so
healthful, until the ripening of the currants, and the gooseberries and
the blackberries, and the grapes, as the season advances, gives ample
scope for all our likes and dislikes, and an abundant supply of
nutritious food and most agreeable medicine. For the sake of your health
then, and that of your families, you will set apart some convenient spot
for the cultivation of these small fruits, so that from the time that
the strawberries ripen until the frosts come again, there will be fresh
fruit upon the table every day.
Besides promoting the health of yourself and family, you will be adding
largely to the enjoyment of all, and especially of the children. Who has
not noticed the eager fondness of children for fruit? There is scarcely
anything that delights them more. If then a few rods of ground devoted
to small fruits will contribute not only to the health but to the
happiness of your children, will it not pay? Will not anything pay that
makes home more attractive to your children? Home, with its delightful
memories, not the least of them the visions of delicious strawberries,
and fragrant raspberries, and scarlet currants, and huge blackberries,
and clusters of grapes.
But it pays also in an increased intelligence. One cannot cultivate his
garden of small fruits without calling into exercise his intellectual
faculties, and that in many ways. He will think in a different line from
that which his mind traverses when he is engaged in the other and
ordinary pursuits of the farm. The mind is enlarged by the contemplation
of an enlarged variety of subjects. To grow these small fruits
successfully one must study their requirements, not a difficult study by
any means, but this exercise of the mind in another channel quickens its
perceptions and awakens its activities. Besides, from the very nature of
the operations, so different from the rougher and more muscular
operations of the farm, there is brought into action the more delicate,
shall we not say the more refined, qualities of thought and action, so
that the man becomes more complete and symmetrical intellectually. And
the children will grow up with enlarged knowledge and more refined
tastes, just in proportion as the ordinary routine of farm life is
varied and enlivened by the cultivation of those things which are
usually embraced in the term horticulture.
On the score then of intelligence, of refinement, of health, of
enjoyment, we commend to our farmers the cultivation of small fruits.
Remember, we say cultivation, not the planting and leaving of them to
take care of themselves; that is worse than not to plant at all, for it
only ends in disappointment and disgust. But a garden of small fruits,
well and lovingly tended, will repay a thousand fold all the care and
thought bestowed upon it, in the increased health, happiness,
intelligence and refinement of its possessors.